Following a successful year in 2006 Assyst Bullmer has made some
new additions to the Premiumcut.
One of the key principals of the continuing development of the Premiumcut is that it should be adaptable to process, to cut differing types of material depending on the application. For this reason over recent years developments have taken the machine in the direction of offering a modular tool system, this allows the user to interchange tools or even carry out several tasks with different tools in one production run. The benefit of all this being reduced production times, with high material usage and less finishing required.
"Increasingly we find we are asked to provide a machine which will carry out a wide range of processes and tasks. This can be anything from cutting PVC to thick carpet with heavy rolls or from printing recognition marks to sanding materials such as Hypalon©, used in inflatable boat manufacture. At the same time we are building machines required to do all this while maintaining Assyst Bullmer's high nesting and material utilisation capabilities."
2007 has seen the introduction of new features to the machine which now includes a full range of knife cutting tools. The most popular options being the electrically oscillating knife, the pneumatic knife, the driven rotary blade and the routing head. The new additions to the Premiumcut include the grinding mechanism for sanding and the ultrasonic cutting tool, used to melt and seal a material to prevent fraying once it's been cut.
"Our aim is to allow businesses to invest once and cut everything on a machine which is robust and strong enough to handle a full production environment. As a company our capabilities are required to be as varied as our customers'. We want operators to be able to set the machine running and have only minimal personnel at its control, required only to monitor progress and offload parts after being cut."
In addition to cutting machinery Assyst Bullmer also develop and sell other machines such as feeding cradles to unroll and automatically feed material onto the conveyor, this particularly useful for materials which are hard to unwind or have a tendency to stretch or come off the roll unevenly. Another department of the company also develop an in house range of CAD software targeted especially at fabric engineering for pattern design, nesting and cut optimisation.
Assyst Bullmer Ltd have been supplying Zund cutters
to UK companies for over 10 years. Zund cutters
are manufactured by Zund
Systemtechnik in Switzerland. Most of
the Zund cutters we supply are conveyorised as this is well suited to our
markets, though fixed tables are also available. Zund cutters are used to
cut products as varied as covers (photo below), made to measure tailoring,
aerospace composites, aircraft ducting, upholstery, Formula 1 and other racing
cars, clothing and soft play equipment.
Assyst Bullmer also provides blades, service, spares and cutting belts for
all Zund cutters. Many Zund blades can be re-sharpened which is a particularly
economical and popular service, contact Assyst Bullmer to see about re-sharpening
your blades.
Manufacturers of inflatable boats (RIBS) and other products
made with laminates such as Hyperlon need to grind the surface at seams in
order to roughen the surface and allow the bonding glue to adhere to the Hyperlon.
Some users of rubber also need to buff the surface of the rubber prior to joining
or vulcanising. As a manual process this is a fairly unpleasant, dirty job
requiring containment with operators equipped with dust masks. Buff lines are
often parallel sided whereas the manual tools grind in a circular motion so
resulting quality can be variable.
Assyst Bullmer have developed a unique grinding
device that fits on the Premiumcut that
roughens the material surface top a precise depth. Linked with the grinding
system are an automatic height adjustment to maintain and even depth of grind
and integrated dust removal system.
The system is already in use at a leading UK RIB manufacturing company
Assyst Bullmer's automatic nesting service, www.automarker.com is finding success with a growing range of applications. The majority of users nest patterns to cut out of textile but recently users have been nesting products such as graphic signs, lampshades, composite aircraft wing components, furniture laminate and artificial grass.
Most companies with patterns available on CAD
are able to use www.automarker.com as shapes can be nested in many common formats, often the CAD systems used
by these customers are very competent 3D or 2D packages but the nesting capabilities
of automarker have yielded large material savings.
Assyst Bullmer integrate machinery from companies such as Algotex, Zund, Ioline in the systems we supply to customers.
Assyst Bullmer have been selling cutters from Zund Systemtechnik for over 10 years and have many installations throughout the UK. Zund are renowned for high accuracy. Zund cutters are in use in diverse industries such as carbon fibre composites for motor racing and aerospace, upholstery, soft play equipment, inflatables, gaskets, carpet cutting and clothing manufacture.
Assyst Bullmer's engineers have been Zund factory trained in Switzerland, and provide training and service. All spare parts are also supplied and the re-sharpening service for Zund knife blades is particularly economical.
Algotex ink jet plotters are in use to plot wide format markers, typically 1.5m-2m wide. The Streamjet uses standard HP cartridges for easy supply and economical running. Assyst Bullmer engineers have been trained at the Algotex factory in Bologna.
Most single ply cutters have a marking capability
to identify cut components, ensure traceability or mark attachment points.
Ink jets are increasingly required as the speed of inkjet application allows
quick processing. Assyst Bullmer can mount inkjets to work in a single direction,
which can be very cost effective, or to rotate and print in any direction.